I was just reading an old post about ADD analogies, and I certainly relate to a lot of them, but there is one thing most of them include that I can't always relate to.

I'm inattentive(or combined but mostly inattentive), and I'm wondering if other inattentives experience this too.

Most people mentioned racing thoughts in their anologies...commonly stated like "having 5 radios and tvs all on different channels at the same time in the same room"
I understand tuning other things out is hard, and I do switch thoughts quickly, and on occasion my thoughts are so out of control I would describe it like that, but if I were to write an analogy about what it feels like from day to day, I'd say more like the radios and tvs are all on static and I'm trying to focus on one radio station amongst that.

Its more like mental fog, or like a brick wall that blocks half my head from letting thoughts through.
I've descibed it to others as
"take a huge wad of cotton balls, dye them dark grey, and then stuff them into the back half of your skull so tightly that nothing can penetrate it and it's putting uncomfortable pressure on your head that feels like a car crusher compressing your skull."

I actually have that image..the dark grey fog in the back of my mind.
It feels like any thoughts that go there are gone, and thats how I forget everything. And it blocks me from concentrating, and having control over what I focus on and using my working memory. It overtakes my thoughts so I can't even hold in my mind a thought long enough to complete my own sentence.

On meds this clears, and I can think and listen and focus my attention where I want it to go. It doesn't suck up my thoughts and make me loose them faster than I can say them or write them.

Especially for inattentives, and combined types, which analogy better suits you?

I'm inattentive(or combined but mostly inattentive), and I'm wondering if other inattentives experience this too.

Most people mentioned racing thoughts in their anologies...commonly stated like "having 5 radios and tvs all on different channels at the same time in the same room"
I understand tuning other things out is hard, and I do switch thoughts quickly, and on occasion my thoughts are so out of control I would describe it like that, but if I were to write an analogy about what it feels like from day to day, I'd say more like the radios and tvs are all on static and I'm trying to focus on one radio station amongst that.

Its more like mental fog, or like a brick wall that blocks half my head from letting thoughts through.
I've descibed it to others as
"take a huge wad of cotton balls, dye them dark grey, and then stuff them into the back half of your skull so tightly that nothing can penetrate it and it's putting uncomfortable pressure on your head that feels like a car crusher compressing your skull."

I actually have that image..the dark grey fog in the back of my mind.
It feels like any thoughts that go there are gone, and thats how I forget everything. And it blocks me from concentrating, and having control over what I focus on and using my working memory. It overtakes my thoughts so I can't even hold in my mind a thought long enough to complete my own sentence.YES!!!! just YES!! thank you!, i thought i was that i was just being a lazy good for nothing ****head because there were a couple of things that didn't fit when reading others posts on here talking about stuff and i was seriously doubting myself!

seriously thought if u could describe more stuff like that it would be great to give me confidence....i still haven't been dx'ed for the....lets go with fear, that i might not be add/adhd.

again thanks

(lol u shoulda seen me typing then, it was like a mad dash to answer lol)

but if I were to write an analogy about what it feels like from day to day, I'd say more like the radios and tvs are all on static and I'm trying to focus on one radio station amongst that.
When I'm trying to listen to something, this analogy describes me best. It's funny, I teach and when all my students are talking, I can hear EVERYTHING. However, when just one student is talking and I'm trying to hear what they're saying, I can't for anything hear what they're saying. I can, however, hear what's going on in the hall, outside, air conditioner, side conversations, etc.

I actually have that image..the dark grey fog in the back of my mind.
It feels like any thoughts that go there are gone, and thats how I forget everything. And it blocks me from concentrating, and having control over what I focus on and using my working memory. It overtakes my thoughts so I can't even hold in my mind a thought long enough to complete my own sentence.
When I'm working on something or talking directly to someone, the "brain fog" thing more applies. I know what I wanted to say was in there somewhere, but I just can't pull it out of my head. It's so frustrating to be right in the middle of saying something and completely lose my thought. Once it gets caught up in my fog, rarely can I rescue it.

I guess the main difference in analogies for me is whether I'm trying to take in information or I'm trying to express information (verbal or written). Either way, it's frustrating.

When I'm trying to listen to something, this analogy describes me best. It's funny, I teach and when all my students are talking, I can hear EVERYTHING. However, when just one student is talking and I'm trying to hear what they're saying, I can't for anything hear what they're saying. I can, however, hear what's going on in the hall, outside, air conditioner, side conversations, etc.


When I'm working on something or talking directly to someone, the "brain fog" thing more applies. I know what I wanted to say was in there somewhere, but I just can't pull it out of my head. It's so frustrating to be right in the middle of saying something and completely lose my thought. Once it gets caught up in my fog, rarely can I rescue it.

I guess the main difference in analogies for me is whether I'm trying to take in information or I'm trying to express information (verbal or written). Either way, it's frustrating.
Tristan,
Thanks for this post!!! You said exactly what it is like for me in better words than I would have used!!!!


This is me too!!! :eek:

Yep, yep, yep. One-on-one conversations are sometimes difficult for me. I have a habit of hyperfocusing on something other than the person talking, like their lips moving or that zit on their nose. In addition, it's very frustrating when I wish to engage in coversation and that mental fog creeps in. I know what I wanted to say at one point, I had it planned and well thought out and then poof...it's gone or that word...what's that word...I can't remember that word...Some might say that I suffer from dsynomia. I don't know if that's an accurate assement but there are days that it fits me to a "t".

Thank you for this...I do relate.

Dimension, thanks for your post too. I'm recently diagnosed, well I don't have any official documents or whatever you get because I don't want them from the guy who said "well I guess you've got a diagnosis" because I don't trust him one bit. I'm on dex and it helps SO much, but I still have that doubt in the back of my mind because I received one of those "lets give u drugs and if it helps then you're add" kind of diagnosises. I just feel like that leaves room for doubt, and so questions still arise in my mind when I read things like that.
Im so glad I have people who agree here!!!! Ive never read it like that before, so I've always wondered if anyone can relate.
Whoo!!

Last Sunday at church I operated the powerpoint for the first time, and later when I told mum that I found it a little stressful because I had to hyper-focus, she didn't really understand what I meant. However, I have since thought of an analogy that hopefully will help her understand.

Imagine there are two guys who have been asked to move a pile of bricks. Both of them are about the same height and weight, and both are quite healthy. However, one guy is more physically stronger than the other, which means that the one who isn't has to put more energy into lifting the bricks. And since he has to use more of his energy, he will obviously tire more quickly than the other guy, who is stronger.

In a similiar way, I believe that my brain lacks certain strengths compare to some others, and because of this I have to more energy in when trying to concentre, which means that I do become easily tired.

I know it's not the best analogy, but I do hope it makes sense.

For me, it's like there are gears running in my skull that make my brain work, but someone filled it up with honey or some other viscous material. When my brain tries to work harder to overcome this, it causes other gears in my head to start working overtime. Eventually the entire mechanism overheats and breaks down.

For me, like trying to go towards something and having it keep changing position, so that I slide off its side or disappearing so that I know where it was, just not what it was.

Imagine your head is an office, and Robin Williams is the office manager, and Ty Pennington is your receptionist.

For me, it's sort of like my conscious self being 2 steps behind my actual self. . . my brain doesn't necessarily ping pong off into different directions; it keeps rattling down the same train track, and I don't realize that it's left me behind.

Inattention in its very very basic form is a matter of improperly filtering information and placing the correct importance on that information. We get bogged down quickly by stimulus and just sort of shut it out. This leads to a sort of feeling of hitting a wall.

This also leads us to having really weird memories. For instance i can have a conversation with someone and days later not even recall what was talked about but can remember what time the clock on a wall said it was during this conversation. This goes back to the whole improper information filtering.

To be honest i dont really understand the demotivating qualities of inattention other than to say were not getting dopamine in the right spots of the brain.

I'm recently diagnosed, well I don't have any official documents or whatever you get because I don't want them from the guy who said "well I guess you've got a diagnosis" because I don't trust him one bit. I'm on dex and it helps SO much, but I still have that doubt in the back of my mind because I received one of those "lets give u drugs and if it helps then you're add" kind of diagnosises. I just feel like that leaves room for doubt, and so questions still arise in my mind when I read things like that.

I can relate to doubt about the diagnosis! I found a very comprehensive ADD checklist in my searches and it was very helpful. Lots of things I didn't know were related to ADHD in there. The link is: www.oneaddplace.com (http://www.oneaddplace.com) Look for the checklist.

Thanks for you post, still searching also!!

This week I have been feeling overwhelmed and I keep losing my cellphone. So frustrating when you head is already full of wet noodles....:(

I haven't posted because I am diagnosis as hyperactive and have hyperactive off the scale with moderate impulsive traits few if any inattentive traits at the time of my diagnosis. I have matured 10+ years sense my diagnosis a lot has changed

Here is the question

When my medications begin to wear off I some times I actually feel "heavy" My thoughts feel as if they are moving through molasses. My body feels like it doesn’t want to move. Gary picks up on the fact my medication are wearing off before I do because I am inside the molasses. . . . .

When I asked him how he knew he said because when he ask me an question or tries to talk to me I look "spaced out" and I don't talk like my normal he describes it as slow and I seem to him to be a million miles away (I am). . . . . he pointed it out the other day . . . . .I made it a point to remember recalling the experience now I remember feeling disconnected like my thoughts were in one place but the words were else where . . . . the few I did manage to formulate would seem to fade out almost as soon as they came together I would get a few out then poof nothing. Some times I poof out with them mid sentence then I fall silent I gone I am thinking but if some one ask me what I am think or gets my attention it is instantly gone only the space is left where the thought used to be!

This doesn't happen if I am physically moving when my meds begin to leave only if I am physically still. When this does happen (and Gary isn’t around to feed me my medication) it is temporary only lasting about an hour to ninety minutes.

I have often wondered if this is what it felt like to be inattentive? I do not know sense technically I have never been so. . . . . .I thought you guys would be able to tell me if this is what it is like on the inside.

When my medications begin to wear off I some times I actually feel "heavy" My thoughts feel as if they are moving through molasses. My body feels like it doesn’t want to move. Gary picks up on the fact my medication are wearing off before I do because I am inside the molasses. . . . .

At least from my experience, I wouldn't describe inattentive like that, far from it really. Almost the opposite really? When I'm at my worst my mind is racing, flicking over thoughts, connecting, tangents etc.

One of the ways I might try to describe it is you've got a crowd of invisible around you(that's your mind), all trying to get your attention, tapping your shoulder, trying to show you something, telling you to do something, or already just blathering at you.

You're writing a paper or talking to someone, or something, some of them are telling you what to say/do/write, all of them having different ideas, some of them are trying to point out something completely different or unrelated and some of them just make you think 'er...'.

So you're there, having ten things on the end of your tongue, or pencil, whatever, trying to figure out what to do, because you're the one who has to remember all this, they certainly won't put much effort into that. You ask them what it was again and they either have no clue or only remember bits of it.

And you're just kind of "Uggh," trying to focus on the real person/paper/whatever in front of you and not look like a complete imbecile

But on that note, I'm not keen on analogies, and that's a bit of an over dramatisation, and not really on the mark and blah |D. I'm probably just more confusing.

On the other hand, the two separate entities is an interesting idea, cause sometimes I do feel like I'm sitting on some ugly, seething pile of muck, having no idea even where to begin.

No whatAsaidtoB it was me that wasn't clear, see being hyperactive ADD my thoughts normally come in brain and pop out mouth before I even know what my thoughts are. I guess I am trying to say my mind doesn't stop being active but I am unable to access the words to my thoughts, it is the connecting the thoughts to words that is sluggish.

My thinking will be active but the minute I try to put words with the thoughts the thoughts seem to disappear before I can find the words to go with them. Once gone what ever was on my mind is gone forever. :o

Physically I feel like I move slower.

I want honesty it could simply be the medication wearing off and be nothing like being inattentive ADD. I do really appreciate you even responding to my question-thanks whatAsaidtoB

Hmm... I like the analagies thing. I guess mine would be that:

My walkie talkie is set to "scan". Everyone else seems to have a channel... but mine picks up all of them at once. If two people are talking in the same room... It's like they're "Walking all over each other". One fades out and another fades in... and then vice versa. Just like a walkie talkie... you can't pick which conversation you hear at any given time... you just try to fill in the blanks more for the conversation you want to hear.

In my experience, my inattentive ADD can feel like I'm trying to wade through thick, gloopy mud. Those are the moments when I'm trying to digest information or when I'm trying to come up with a solution. Or when I'm over-stimulated and I have too much stuff in my head, it literally feels like.. ever see one of those subway trains in Tokyo and the guy is just trying to ram one more body into the train? Kind of like that. Things are spilling over and I'm trying to get one more fact in.

I understand tuning other things out is hard, and I do switch thoughts quickly, and on occasion my thoughts are so out of control I would describe it like that, but if I were to write an analogy about what it feels like from day to day, I'd say more like the radios and tvs are all on static and I'm trying to focus on one radio station amongst that.

Its more like mental fog, or like a brick wall that blocks half my head from letting thoughts through.
I've descibed it to others as
"take a huge wad of cotton balls, dye them dark grey, and then stuff them into the back half of your skull so tightly that nothing can penetrate it and it's putting uncomfortable pressure on your head that feels like a car crusher compressing your skull."
I realize the original post is several months old now, but I just joined these forums today.

Your analogy really strikes a chord with me. I've used an extremely similar analogy in describing how I feel much of the time. There is this impenetrable mental fog that I just can't get through... I know that I am able to, but I just can't, and the harder I try to break through it, the more foggy my mind gets.

It's like trying to watch TV and not a single channel comes in clearly. Every channel bleeds into at least one or two others, and when trying to tune into any one channel, it's disrupted by broadcasts from 2 or 3 other channels, as well as just plain static. Sometimes flipping the channel to another for a few minutes and then going back will help clear it up a bit, but often I'm just channel-surfing, looking desperately for SOMETHING that comes in clearly. And as soon as I find that one channel that has a fairly clear reception, I devote most of my attention and resources to it, because at least it's not just aimless wandering. Anything that breaks through the mental fog is good, because there is nothing I hate more than feeling mentally foggy and sluggish and unable to concentrate on anything.

Hmm... I like the analagies thing. I guess mine would be that:

My walkie talkie is set to "scan". Everyone else seems to have a channel... but mine picks up all of them at once. If two people are talking in the same room... It's like they're "Walking all over each other". One fades out and another fades in... and then vice versa. Just like a walkie talkie... you can't pick which conversation you hear at any given time... you just try to fill in the blanks more for the conversation you want to hear.Foghat's analagy seem to fit me the best. The reason the Fog/static analagies do not work for me is that they imply that none of of my thoughts come though clearly. Actually, I feel I have many deep thoughs and vivid daydreams. The problem is they usally have absolutly nothing to do with the task I am trying to work on.

I agree. Foghats analogy seems to be me. I can listen to many things going on at once, but as I get older it drives me crazy. Because mentally I am trying to grasp it all. Like all three of my kids talking at once lol.

Anyone else here see Joe and the Volcano? (Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan)

I have a vivid memory of Tom Hanks as a hypochondriac sitting in this cheerless doctor's office, getting a diagnosis of "brain cloud" and saying, "a brain cloud...that makes sense." The doctor tells him the two halves of his brain are not communicating and that it's terminal. So he sets out on a final adventure and discovers the whole diagnosis is bogus.

And I was sitting in the audience thinking, "that's what I have!" I've always found some irony in identifying with an illness that didn't exist, because I've often physically felt like I was fighting through a cloud in my brain to get words out or get stuff done.

All these years later I find that yes, brain clouds do exist--it's called ADD.


When my medications begin to wear off I some times I actually feel "heavy" My thoughts feel as if they are moving through molasses. My body feels like it doesn’t want to move. Gary picks up on the fact my medication are wearing off before I do because I am inside the molasses. . . . .

...Some times I poof out with them mid sentence then I fall silent I gone I am thinking but if some one ask me what I am think or gets my attention it is instantly gone only the space is left where the thought used to be! Mead, that was the other analogy I've often used--like I'm wading or thinking through molasses. Some days are a lot worse than others. It tries my husband's patience sometimes because I come out with half a sentence, he's trying hard to listen, and then.... nothing. Trying to get the rest of the sentence is like trying to focus on a blind spot. Doesn't work. In general it's getting better with age, but hits with a vengeance some days. I have friends w/ similar that relate it to the interaction of ADD & low hormones. Did you ever get the molasses feeling before you started on meds, or is this new for you?

I was watching the movie Click with Adam Sandler the other night. The main jist of the movie is the Sandlers charater uses a special remote control to skip past difficult parts of his life. However he goes into sort of an autopilot mode during the period that he skipped through which negatively impacted his life. I really identified with this since thats how I go through much of my life. It like I am there pysically but I am running on auto pilot just going through the motions while my mind is elsewhere.

Did you ever get the molasses feeling before you started on meds, or is this new for you?

Molasses feeling is very new to me, with or with out medications. I was originally diagnosed hyper active ADD so I didn’t do molasses before medications I did bouncing off the walls, ceiling, and floors ADHD. The hormonal thing rings a bell though, I am 40ish so there could easily be a connection there. :rolleyes:




I am there pysically but I am running on auto pilot just going through the motions while my mind is elsewhere

I wouldn’t mind my mind going else where nearly as much, if it would be so kind as to notify me first. It leaves and I don’t even know it is gone until it snaps back (usually by the questions: did you hear me? . . . or. . . well what do you think?) :o Then it is so rude as to refuse to tell me where it has been. How annoying. :mad:

Ohh, I know that feeling very well Mead

When I am most ADD (as I am today), I feel as if there is no top to my head. My thoughts and brain are just floating around somewhere else enjoying themselve (or so I assume) and they won't come back and focus on anything. I don't even feel as if I can count on my eyes to properly register what they're seeing (so if this message is horribly spelled or key words are missing, all I can say is that when I feel like this, I am incapable of proofreading.)

I was going to suggest a new thread in which to collect analogies for ADD brain function. This one is already here, although inactive, maybe we can dust it off and grow it some more. It’s full of great stuff. My interest is to compare analogies and see if that provides any better focus on this condition we’re all trying to deal with.

My two favorites are:

Corn popper toy (google image search for “fisher price corn popper” if you’re not familiar). The noisy little push toy with a bunch of colored balls inside a clear dome, as you push it the wheels drive a piston which launches the balls up against the dome. Chaotic and pretty random. I imagine each ball is a thought process or task. They are discrete, there are lots of them in play, but each is moving so quickly that you can’t really grab it and deal with it in any meaningful way. If I wake up in the middle of the night and the Adderall has worn off I’m REALLY aware of this.

Two magnets, one is a task, the other is my brain. When they are aligned S to S or N to N you just can’t make them connect. No matter how hard you try, and how much you want the “brain” to engage the “task” they just slide of away from each other. But if one is flipped so they are N to S, then they snap together and you can hardly get them apart. This is hyperfocus. I suppose that for normative-brain types the magnets would just be very weak.

One of the ways I might try to describe it is you've got a crowd of invisible around you(that's your mind), all trying to get your attention, tapping your shoulder, trying to show you something, telling you to do something, or already just blathering at you.

You're writing a paper or talking to someone, or something, some of them are telling you what to say/do/write, all of them having different ideas, some of them are trying to point out something completely different or unrelated and some of them just make you think 'er..."

Yes, I tried to use that exact analogy years ago in college with my mother. I tried to explain that it is "like voices in my head".

Her reaction was such horror that I quickly backed away from it - "No, no, no, I don't mean it like THAT!"

So, I never tried to make that analogy again. Now-a-days I have tried to describe it as a flock of birds all flapping around me in a circle at once. They are in my face and my hair and I can't think clearly with them swooping and flapping at me. But I am careful to emphasize that it is an ANALOGY. I don't LITERALLY see birds flapping around me! I am not delusional!

I would LOVE to see an expanded collection of analogies! I find them about the only effective way to describe to other people what it's like to be me.

One of my favourites I use to try to explain why normal, everyday life, and especially social events, are so EXHAUSTING for me . . . Imagine (as a "normal") that you are having a long conversation with someone who speaks quickly, but with a very strong foreign accent, very difficult to understand, so that you have to really struggle to "get" every word.

Then imagine that EVERYONE you talk to all day (at work, on the phone, everywhere) speaks the same way. Then you come home (already tired from all that concentrated listening) to your husband and kids, and they also speak with strong accents, hard to understand, but (because of the way kids and families are) all at the same time. While you are trying to cook supper. And get a load of laundry in.

Then (to take it a step further) you go to a party. Everyone you talk to there has the same accent which you struggle to decipher, only with a bunch of other noisy people around you also speaking, and interrupting (with...you guessed it...). Then add loud background party music into the mix, so you have trouble hearing anything at all...

It's not perfect, as analogies go, but it helped my husband and friends understand the mental fatigue thing, and how even though I enjoy social events, they wear me right out.

I just have to add the analogy my old man came up with from observing me and the kids. He deserves mad props for this, IMHO.

He said:

Your life is like a flashlight, the kind that you can twist the end to broaden or narrow the beam of light. Your ADD is like the end is twisted too far and the beam is too wide, so you can see bits of many things all at once but cannot see any one thing clearly. By the same token, when you are engaged in hyperfocus, the end is twisted far in the other direction. The beam is very narrow and focused on one thing, but you see nothing else. Your meds give you the ability to regulate the beam on your flashlight.

I think that was a very shrewd observation.

Foghat's analagy seem to fit me the best. The reason the Fog/static analagies do not work for me is that they imply that none of of my thoughts come though clearly. Actually, I feel I have many deep thoughs and vivid daydreams. The problem is they usally have absolutly nothing to do with the task I am trying to work on.Yes, I am exactly the same way. My mind keeps wandering when it problably needs to stay focused on something. Especially when something is unpleasant like work, my mind will skip to some tangent like a day dream, and stay there.

Then, I often get hyperfocused, and I drown out the entire outside world. It's like, everything I was supposed to do doesn't exist any more. Hours will pass like minutes, and I'll spend the entire day playing a video game or day dreaming.

Although I will say this - a lot of people have expressed problems drowing out multiple voices or input. I'm the same way. I can't go anywhere crowded because I can't focus on a single voice when someone is talking to me.

I am not sure which type I am. It did not seem to be that important to any of the three Dr.s I saw. I have been on Dexadrine for about a month.

What I found best describes me was the static in my head, the voices as procrastinator said, and I also get this feeling of overwhelm.

I feel like I am drowning in a sea of emotions. Normally when it is happy emotions of course I would not change it for anything, but when they are sad or depressing, it is like doing the dog paddle in the deep end.

...the dark grey fog in the back of my mind.
It feels like any thoughts that go there are gone, and thats how I forget everything. And it blocks me from concentrating, and having control over what I focus on and using my working memory. It overtakes my thoughts so I can't even hold in my mind a thought long enough to complete my own sentence.Wow! Do I relate to that! I think it describes my worst days perfectly. I'll be trying to work on something and get so frustrated because I can't remember what I thought or did a few seconds ago. Probably the worst thing about it is that I want my work to be perfect - but cannot feel that confidence when I am in this state. Did I dot all the I's and cross all the T's? I have no idea, because I can't remember what I just did! So I have to double, triple and quadruple check everything I do. Makes for a tedious day.

Hmmm I will have to wiggle on that. I think separating the thread might be a good idea because the title may repeal some of the combined ADDers that tend swing to the hyperactive side of ADD. If I were not moderating this area I would not have dropped in at all, simply because the title says inattentive. . . . then again I could just eliminate the inattentive part of the title {which would be easier}, I wonder if the load of wash is ready to be should I go back to work or walk the, ouch hey cat that is my hair you are swinging from, why do they have such sharp, now what was I supposed to be doing. . . . .

It is like all the voices are talking at once Trying to make them shut up only adds another voice to the mix. . . .


It is like having too many people talking to me at once but they are all me. . . . they are my thoughts and they do not talk to each other very much . . . .if they do they argue. . . . Adderall allows me to back ground this stuff but it does not eliminate it completely.


The removal of the word inattentive is a literal though pertaining to this thread - I wonder if I will remember once I have walked the dog to work on my hair with sharp claws in the stopped washing machine hanging out. . . . .{good thing I think mostly in pictures}

It would be helpful for me to have analogies for different subtypes together, maybe with contributors noting which substype they are - if they know. It would help me to understand the greater "us". Maybe that means taking "inattentive" out of the thread title is a good idea - but only if whoever started this thread has gotten what they came looking for - or has move on.

Amazingly enough I did remember to come back to this thread after I sorted out what needed to be hung on the line, walked, gotten out of my hair and returned to work. . . . :faint:

True to my ADD ways I didn't split the thread nor did I change the title I decided to simply add some words to the already present title. . . . . . :cool:

I just thought of this one the other day when posting in the thread about talking to yourself. I wanted to add it here because it fits me personally better than anything I've heard yet. The image is vivid for me because I saw this very thing on an "Amazing Race" episode a while back...

"My thoughts are like a bunch of slippery black eels squirming in a barrel - all look about alike - I spot one, then lose sight of it, maybe confuse it for another...which one was I looking for? Thinking out loud is like grabbing the eel I want (have to be quick and hold tight because it can slip away so easily), then pulling it out so that it cannot escape or be confused with another and holding it up to the light so I can see it."